Burn proposed for Linville Gorge

Not everyone happy about forest plan

Dec. 8, 2012

Table Mountain pine, in forefront, is a tree species that scientists say will benefit from a prescribed fire in the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area in the Pisgah National Forest. Hawksbill Mountain is seen in the background. The Forest Service is now taking public comment on the proposed project. / Special to the Citizen-Times

ASHEVILLE — Hoping to avoid another catastrophic wildfire in the Linville Gorge Wilderness and improve overall forest health, the U.S. Forest Service plans to beat fire at its own game with a prescribed burn.

But some nearby homeowners and those who enjoy recreation in the gorge are rallying against the burning plan.

The Forest Service is now in a scoping period where it is seeking public comment for an environmental assessment through Jan. 31 for the Linville Gorge Prescribed Fire Project.

The prescribed burn would take place on some 11,786 acres inside Linville Gorge, which sits in the Grandfather District of Pisgah National Forest in McDowell and Burke counties, and some 4,800 acres of the forest outside the wilderness area, for a total of 16,586 acres.

“It’s one of the bigger, if not the biggest, prescribed burns we undertake in the mountains,” said Gary Kauffman, forest service botanist.

“The whole ecosystem, the pine-oak/heath forest ecosystem, is fire adapted. Research found that historically, fires would come through every three-seven years. But we suppressed natural fires for so long that the fuels have built up. That’s one of the reasons there was such a catastrophic fire in 2007,” Kauffman said of the Shortoff Mountain Fire that started from a lightning strike in Linville Gorge.

“Because the fuels were so thick in the duff layer, it created such an intense fire that was much harder to control.”

Imitating natural wildfires with a prescribed burn — a fire set under controlled conditions — would help reduce the fuel load, which would reduce the intensity of fire when it occurs naturally, Kauffman said.

The Shortoff Mountain Fire burned some 3,200 acres and lasted for more than a month. Prescribed burns are common throughout national forests but are more rare in wilderness areas, Kauffman said. Special permission from the regional Forest Service supervisor is needed for burning in these areas that are governed by restrictions outlined in the 1964 Wilderness Act.

(Page 2 of 4)

But nearby residents, especially those in the Gingercake Acres community in Jonas Ridge adjacent to Linville Gorge Wilderness, are concerned with the disruption a prescribed burn would bring, and the possible associated hazards. They say a Forest Service track record of prescribed burns going awry is also cause for serious concern.

Fire: friend or foe?

A grassroots group has formed a website called “Save the Linville Gorge Wilderness,” (www.savelgw.org) and has been circulating an online petition urging people who love the gorge not to let it burn.

As of late this week, there were about 150 signatures on the petition that will be sent to the Forest Service by the Jan. 15 deadline for comments.

One of the group’s concerns is that prescribed fires have been known to “escape” their lines. In November, a 675-acre wildfire erupted in Pilot Mountain State Park in Surry County when embers blew from a dead tree during a prescribed fire and escaped into steep terrain.

In June, a controlled burn planned for 2,000 acres in the coastal Croatan National Forest escaped and burned more than 21,000 acres.

“We’re very concerned about the burn,” said Bernard Clark, a lawyer who has owned a home in Gingercake for 25 years. “Any citizen should be concerned about it getting out of control. Look at the Croatan burn, it was a tragedy. Once you put fire on the ground, whether it’s by lightning or by human touch, it’s sometimes very difficult to control.”

But fire escaping from a prescribed burn is rare, said Stevin Westcott, forest service spokesman in Asheville. He said fire lines and contingency plans will be put in place to help prevent escapes from happening.

“Before the escape this year at the Croatan National Forest, the last time the U.S. Forest Service had an escape in North Carolina was in 2006 in the Pisgah National Forest,” Westcott said of a prescribed burn off Funnel Top Road that burned about 400 acres beyond the containment lines.

(Page 3 of 4)

“Since that time, we conducted at least 200 prescribed burns in the four national forests without an escape. This means that less than 1 percent of the prescribed burns in the national forests go beyond the fire lines. The benefits of prescribed burning far outweigh the risks.”

The proposed Linville Gorge burn would serve several purposes. In addition to reducing risk for catastrophic fire and the public safety risk, it would restore fire-adapted vegetation and improve habitat for wildlife and specific rare plant species, Kauffman said.

One species that would benefit from fire is the mountain golden heather, a federally threatened species that occurs only in two places in the world, Kauffman said — in Linville Gorge and on Woods Mountain in the Grandfather Ranger District outside the wilderness area.

Heller’s blazing star is another threatened plant species that would benefit from a prescribed burn, he said, as well as Table Mountain, pitch and shortleaf pine trees and oak woodlands.

The Linville Gorge project has four potential burn units using as many natural line breaks as possible, such as streams, or roads outside the wilderness perimeter, so that fire breaks would not have to be built, Kauffman said.

Josh Kelly, public lands biologist with the WNC Alliance, an Asheville-based conservation group working with the Forest Service on the 10-year Grandfather Restoration Project, said he was opposed to prescribed burns, but now believes they are essential for certain ecosystems.

“For a long time I didn’t think they were needed, but the 2007 fire changed my mind,” Kelly said. “It was such a dry year that the Forest Service couldn’t control it all. They allowed lightning fires to be suppressed for 50 years. A lot of old-growth burned up in that fire. It was a shame.”

He points to the Singe Cat Ridge prescribed burn in March, a 2,200-acre burn, as an example of the importance of fire in maintaining native plant life.

He said the endangered golden mountain heather had been on the decline ever since fire had been suppressed, but its population increased 200 percent since the prescribed fire. But he said the other half of the heather’s population in Linville Gorge is still in jeopardy, though, because of lack of fire.

(Page 4 of 4)

Clark and others with Save Linville Gorge Wilderness say they are not so convinced of the prescribed fire’s necessity, and encourage residents to learn as much as they can about the planned burn.

“The burning of Linville Gorge ruins the desirability for thousands of hikers, climbers and campers. The 1964 Wilderness Act says wilderness areas are supposed to be untrammeled by man and an area of solitude and peace. I don’t think any of those things are enhanced by the forest service coming in and burning.”

“Let’s let nature take its course,” he said.

The scoping letter for the Linville Gorge Wilderness Prescribed Fire project, first sent in May, is the first stage for the public to comment on the proposed project.

Public feedback will be used to help develop alternatives in the environmental assessment, Westcott said, and a public comment period would follow the release of the draft environmental assessment.

The regional forester in Atlanta will make the final decision on whether to go through with the prescribed burn, which is most likely years away.